Monday, February 28, 2011

MY ADVENTURE PART 1: Beginnings

Someone told me - years ago - to look at my life and my marriage as MY ADVENTURE!  Those words have helped me when I have been facing any scary, unknown curve in the road.   Once again, MY ADVENTURE is blazing new territory.......
We are moving from a 4 bedroom condo in a beautiful 'planned community'. The last 5 years have been a crazy ride.  We had been renters and worked 10 years to dig out of debt.  We were free from debt, and very committed to keeping it that way.
Our condo went from being rentals to selling to individual owners.  At that very moment in time, my husband and I both had good paying jobs.  We decided to take the plunge.  (cashing in a little retirement to have the down payment.)
The very same month we moved in as owners, I lost my job.  4 months later, I opened a notice that came in the mail from the tax assessment people.  Our mortgage payment would increase by $600 a month for one year to make up for last years tax deficiency and this years tax increase.  Each month was a struggle, but we kept our heads above water.
Then, part of my family moved in with us because they were having marriage and financial struggles (2 adults and 2 children).  During this time, our commitment to live within our means slowly eroded, and our credit card debt began to build.  We lived like this for about 2 years.
The next ADVENTURE happened March 20, 2009 at 4:30 pm on a Friday.  My husband, a top paid  manager in the company he'd worked for 14 years, received a phone call saying, "You're done!"  With a one weeks pay as our good-bye gift, we began the journey of "Now What?"  This took place right when Florida was starting to fall apart from the financial crises in our country.  Unemployment, foreclosure....Florida ranked on top, and now we did our part to help those numbers out.
We had tried to make smart choices with our money.  Periodically, we would get out our list of monthly bills and look them over to see what we could cut.  Everything seemed necessary...or at least within reason.  We had overspent sometimes, but some of the biggest over-spends had been to help out a family member in need.  We used the credit card - at first JUST for business that we would pay monthly, but over the years we got sloppy and charged 'just gotta have it' stuff.  We had loans for house, 2 cars, college.  But, didn't we HAVE to do it this way.
The little voice in the back of our heads said, "NO!"...but it was a very little voice.
.......follow MY ADVENTURE....more to come.